4:00pm
Last up, we have Stephen Petheram, director of services for Microsoft TV. His talk is largely a series of hyperbolic stats about the (rude) health of the video games industry. And why not? Games consoles like the PS3 and the X-Box 360 are leading products in home entertainment today.
A few facts: the video games industry has tripled in size since 1996, and is a $30 billion industry. 90 million households already use next-generation consoles – by which he means the two consoles mentioned above, plus Nintendo's Wii – and 41million have internet connected games consoles.
X-Box live has led the way in terms of opening up the online experience of console users. But will it work as a platform for delivering TV?
4:15pm
Petheram, inevitably, says the answer is yes. Now he's discussing the benefits of Windows Media Extenders, and talking up the X-Box 360 as a future source for TV. Some interesting stuff about the interagtion of web and TV services, but this is turning into a bit too much of an X-Box advert for my liking....
The future? 'A merging of conventional TV/video content and gaming,' he says. What follows next is a blur of words, some of which include '24/7' and 'immersive experience'. I think I've just overdosed on buzzwords.... Can someone unplug me, please?
4:30
Ok, I'm out. It's been a fascinating day: some downbeat talk of the recession, and a lot of optimistic talk of merging web and TV content and services to create what could be a vibrant future for us, the consumers. Things might move a tad slower than some of the people here would like, but the future of TV looks pretty exciting to me.
